UK mulls permanent restrictions on CFD trading
The Financial Conduct Authority, the UK's financial watchdog, wants to make its restrictions on CFD trading permanent.
It originally placed the new rules on the sale of exchange-traded-contracts, a controversial financial derivative, two years ago. This was done to protect the general public; by insulating people from the bad behaviour of financial companies, they are saving as much as £450.7 million a year.
At the same time, a ban was placed upon binary options, a type of financial betting service that is most often used as a way for companies to defraud their customers. The FCA estimates that the ban has saved UK customers approximately £17 million per year.
The FCA will also begin reviewing CFD contracts based on cryptocurrency in the first quarter of 2019.
FXCM Bulgaria
FXCM, a New York-based multi-asset broker, opened a new office in Bulgaria.
The new premises in the capital city of Sofia comes as the company nears its 20th birthday. It employs around 170 people, with capacity for 240. The firm first opened an office in Bulgaria six years ago. That site was manned by just six people.
Dash to buy eRoom
Dash Financial Technologies, a software provider for financial institutions, is to acquire eRoom Securities, a software provider for brokerages, hedge funds, and professional investors.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019, at which time the latter company will be renamed to Dash Prime.
The companies are currently awaiting regulatory approval.
Ayondo with new service for professionals
Ayondo, a software provider for brokerages, launched a new service called ayondoPRO. The service is for professional traders and allows high levels of leverage.
Specifically, users will be able to bet up to 200 times their original input. It also promises approximately 2,000 different assets to trade with.
Professional traders, according to EU regulations, must meet two of the following three criteria: have made an average of ten high-leverage trades every quarter for the last four quarters; have a portfolio with a total value of at least 500,000; and/or have worked or currently work in the financial sector for a period of at least one year.
“I have never seen this amount of licenses being returned or cancelled”
Finance Magnates engaged Yasha Polyakov, CEO of financial software provider Leverate, in an exclusive interview.
He talked about why opening up in Turkey was a good decision, why the company is discontinuing one of its platforms, why it is stupid to reclassify all traders as professional just to keep up with new regulations, and how he used the Gulf War to motivate his staff when he first took the helm.
Analysis: altcoin extinction
With the cryptocurrency market at an all-time low, the more well-known Cryptocurrencies are still very active. However, the hundreds of funnily-named altcoins that we had become accustomed to hearing about have ceased to exist. But did they ever really exist in the first place?
In this analysis, Finance Magnates looks at all the different ways that a coin can die - from pump and dump schemes to incompetent teams - and reviews five specific examples. Did you know that there is an online graveyard for deceased cryptocurrencies? Click here to read all about it.
Analysis: the land of the bitcoin
The USA is the world's largest economy, and so its decisions regarding financial regulations are relevant to the rest of the world. In terms of cryptocurrency, however, it has been far from the most progressive. Not only this, but the unique setup of the country means that the regulations that it has come up with are not uniform throughout.
In this analysis, Finance Magnates looks at cryptocurrency regulation in the US over the year. The report covers actions taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission, and the government at a Congressional level.
Analysis: the year in financial regulation
The financial industry has seen a number of dramatic changes this year, most notably the introduction of much stricter laws in the European Union. Examples of new restrictions there include brokers having to disclose what percentage of their customers lose their trades, and binary options being banned.
Other major issues include the imminent car crash that is Brexit - read here to discover why many British finance professionals are not worried at all (hint - they already have offices in the EU so it won't affect them). Australia is cleaning up though, as EU customers, eager for high-stakes bets, turn away from their now over-regulated continent.
And in China, that most attractive of markets, the government has been ratcheting up the pressure, first banning the advertisement of foreign exchange services and then turfing foreign brokers out on their ears.
And what about the world's island jurisdictions, once popular destinations for financial firms to set up an office?
Finance Magnates has covered all of these issues extensively - in this analysis, we take a bird's-eye view of the year.
